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Maverick Guitarist Johnny Moeller
Follows His Own Road
To Greatness on New CD from Severn
Records, Bloo-Ga-Loo
Johnny Moeller’s guitar playing is
full of voodoo and lighting. The
floating bent notes, delicately
singing phrases, bursts of staccato
picking, and ringing piano-like
chords that he sculpts into vibrant
solos bring all the beauty, power,
and mystery of the blues to life.
Yet he’s impossible to pigeonhole.
Although Moeller’s the latest in a
long line of six-string wizards to
hail from Austin, he upholds the
Texas music tradition not by
imitating the licks of legendary
Lone Star State players who’ve
influenced him — like Albert
Collins, Lightnin’ Hopkins, the
Vaughan Brothers — but by being a
maverick.
“The truth of the matter is I’ve
never really tried to emulate
anybody else,” explains Moeller,
whose new solo album for Severn
Records is titled BlooGaLoo.
“There are lots of great guitar
players who inspired me, and singers
and saxophone players, too. But I
don’t like to limit myself to purely
one style of music. I have my own
thing, which is blues based, and
then I like to mix in everything
else I love: soul, jazz, funk and
rock ‘n’ roll.”
That amalgamation comes naturally to
the Fort Worth native who grew up on
his father’s blues and soul record
collection, the classic rock he
heard on radio and the albums by
everybody from elegant jazz
guitarist Grant Green to down ‘n’
dirty boogie architect John Lee
Hooker that he bought in high school
with his paychecks from the local
Piggly Wiggly.
But the blues is always Moeller’s
compass. It’s been that way since he
stumbled on an old Lightnin’ Hopkins
album while he flipped through the
bins at Record Town. “When I got
that album home, the minute I played
it I knew that was what I wanted to
do,” he recounts. “It was so raw and
wild and original that it totally
blew my mind.”
Since then Moeller’s developed into
one of the genre’s most stunning and
soulful six-string stylists with an
uncanny ability to support heavy
hitters. Although his most visible
gig is backing Kim Wilson in the
Fabulous Thunderbirds, Moeller also
has his own band and has been the
Severn house guitarist over the last
several years. In that role, he’s
lent artful licks to albums by
stellar vocalists Darrell Nulisch
and Lou Pride, harmonica ace Steve
Guyger and others. He’s also toured
with fellow Texan Nulisch’s band and
the Severn Soul Revue backing
singers Nulisch, Pride, and Tad
Robinson.
“What’s great about being on stage
with the Thunderbirds, Darrell and
the Soul Revue has been learning how
to balance exactly what those
different frontmen want with my own
ability to express myself,” says
Moeller. “It’s forced me to be more
versatile and conscious of the vocal
performances, and to stay focused on
the songs. That’s much harder than
just going out there and wailing.”
Nonetheless, Moeller’s capable of
doing just that, as anybody’s who
witnessed his fiery, funky shows as
the leader of the Johnny Moeller
Band or co-leader of a clutch of
outfits including the Holy Moellers
and the Moeller Brothers can
testify.
Moeller says the essential elements
of his style — a blend of cool
relaxed phrasing and greasy grooves
balanced by razor-wire runs and
howling tones — have been in place
since the days when he landed his
first professional gig backing
Denton, Texas bluesman Pop Carter
with a group that included his
brother Jay, who is also in the
Thunderbirds, and their lifelong pal
Paul Size, another Austin-based
guitar legend in the making.
“Then there were so many other
guitar players who I got to see in
the clubs after I moved to Austin,”
he recalls. “Ronnie Earl, Buddy Guy,
Otis Rush… They all came through
town and they all inspired me to
improve… to really get deeper into
my own thing.”
And almost always they played at
Antone’s, where owner Clifford
Antone took Moeller under wing, even
propelling him on stage for the
first time.
“My brother and I were visiting my
father in Austin one summer and we
went to Antone’s to see Little
Charlie and the Nightcats, who we
love. My brother told Clifford I
played guitar, and before I knew it
he was telling the band, ‘Hey, let’s
get this kid up there.’ It was
surreal, but Clifford was
big-hearted. He helped so many
musicians in Austin, from giving
them gigs to flat-out paying their
rent.”
Moeller says his upcoming album
represents an important step in his
evolution. “It’s really an outgrowth
of my learning how to be a better
frontman,” he explains. “I’m
blossoming as a singer, songwriter,
and leader. Part of that’s just what
I feel I need to do as an artist,
and part of that’s inspired by
working with the bandleaders I’ve
worked with — especially Kim, who
really knows how to run a show on
stage.”
The new Johnny Moeller album,
BlooGaLoo, which he recorded
in bursts over the past four years,
is more fine-tuned than his previous
two releases, 1996’s The
Return of the Funky
Worm and 2001’s Johnny
Blues Aggregation. Those
discs were off-the-cuff affairs,
built around in-studio jams and
produced by the Dallas Blues
Society.
“This album’s come together at a
slower pace because I’ve really been
concentrating on the songwriting and
arranging, and not just rushing into
the studio when I’m off the road,”
says Moeller. “I also sing lead on
four numbers, which is a whole
’nother world for me, but one I’m
becoming more and more comfortable
with. The CD’s got boogaloos and
dirty blues, and half are originals
including some funky instrumentals.
The vibe of some of the songs is
‘James Brown meets Frankie Lee
Sims’.”
Kim Wilson sings and blows harp on
two songs; plus legendary Austin
blues siren Lou Ann Barton’s lush
voice pilots “I’m Stuck on You” and
a version of Earl King’s
“Everybody’s Got to Cry Sometime.”
Moeller also leads a swampy boogaloo
stomp through King’s classic “Trick
Bag,” and does right by Earl
Hooker’s “Tease Me Baby.”
“On this album and in my live sets
these days it feels like I’m really
finding myself,” Moeller says. “So
even I’m curious about what I’m
going to do next.” |
